from some earlier source, as for instance from one of St. Luke's [Greek:
polloi].

But it cannot be so with St. John. A quotation of, or reference to, any
words of any discourse of our Lord, or an account of any transaction as
reported by St. John, can be discerned in an instant. At least it can be
at once seen that it cannot have been derived from the Synoptics, or
from any supposed apocryphal or traditional sources from which the
Synoptics derived their information.

The special object of this Gospel is the identification of the
pre-existent nature of our Lord with the eternal Word, and following
upon this, His relation to His Father on the one side, and to mankind on
the other.

He is the only begotten of the Father, God being His own proper Father
[Greek: idios], and so He is equal to the Father in nature (John v. 18),
and yet, as being a Son, He is subordinate, so that He represents
Himself throughout as sent by the Father to do His will and speak His
words.

With reference to mankind He is, before His Incarnation, the "Light that
lighteth every man." After and through His Incarnation He is to man all
in all. He is even in death the object of their Faith. He is the
Mediator through whose very person God sends the Spirit. He is the Life,
the Light, the Living Water, the Spiritual Food.

Justin Martyr repeatedly reproduces in various forms of expression the
truth that Christ is the eternal "Word made flesh" and revealed as the
"Only-begotten Son of God," thus:--